Photos of Travels to Paraguay

1: Waiting out the 14-hr layover at the Admirals' Lounge in Sao Paulo Airport

2: PC Paraguay in line at Miami Airport

3: PC luggage storage

From the Sao Paulo Airport Admirals' Lounge

Made it to Sao Paulo, Brazil for a 14 hour layover. PC is cushioning the past few days/nights of hotel lobbies, airplane seats, and airport hustling by housing the 43 of us trainees in the American Airlines Admirals' Lounge for the many hours we must spend viewing Brazil from inside the terminal. Some of us are finally crashing from the constant stimulation and overdrive by pushing together stiff leather chairs and crawling into the fetal position. Others are practicing Guarani, the language we're about to be immersed in. A few are reading. A few doing it up early in the day with free cocktails. Most of us are still chatting and engaging with each other with the same speed and intensity that we started at just over 36 hours ago.

Has it really only been 36 hours? It feels like forever already. Meet a thousand new things at once: new PC family, new language(s), new food (mostly starches, thus far), new heights of atmospheric humidity, so little sleep, constantly in transit. Trying to remember what I'm doing. I think we're all trying to remember what we're doing-a normal airport state-of-mind.

My PC family is amazing. So well-intentioned, so ambitious, so idealistic and hopeful and kind. Everyone is here to give, and the giving starts with each other. I feel that I can rest my head on anyone's shoulder (which I've been compelled to do often these past overwhelming and exciting hours) and be at ease. Oh... the joys of sinking into a life about cultivating postive relationships.

First photo: PC luggage storage

Second photo: PC airport check-in

Third photo: Waiting out the 14-hr layover at the Admirals' Lounge

Photos from the Bay Area experience

west coast sunset
lanes and lights on the 580 toll road
receiving a hug from a Berkeley hipster
Point Reyes National Seashore
art and culture on UC Berkeley campus
Point Reyes National Seashore

A Pledge of Allegiance to the Bay Area

9/21/2010

On the plane again—middle isle this time. Between two quiet men reading magazines. Three awesome days spent in the Bay Area. I’ll most certainly (as certain as I can be during this transient and fluid life stage) be calling this place home upon my return to the Northern Hemisphere.

Some reasons I will be moving to the Bay Area in a few years, listed in ascending order as experienced during my recent three-day visit:

(1) to appreciate UC-Berkeley’s lush and elegant campus and outstanding minds as a Geography PhD candidate;

(2) to vote with my minutes and dollars at any of the overwhelming number of used book stores, slow food restaurants, local espresso counters (some also serving hot buttered rum), and international food nooks matched in diversity by the six languages one can hear spoken while standing at a street corner;

(3) to meet and be one of the interesting, warm, and incredibly nice people that serve up the freshest ceviche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceviche) on the North American Coast and live in a hotel-turned-cooperative-home with a rooftop garden (a.k.a. “backyard”), loving kitchen, bedroom bike shop, and rainbow painted walls;

(4) to be human in the human landscape of San Francisco proper, particularly illuminated at night by neon signs, skyscraper silhouettes, metallic evening attire, and the golden gate bridge appearing ghostly and magnified through the midnight fog;

(5) to be human in the non-human landscape of Point Reyes National Seashore, particularly illuminated at dusk as the sun dives into the Pacific and silhouettes surfacing seals, dramatic crumbling sea cliffs, and plovers chasing and being chased by foamy ocean waves;

(6) to savor the terroir (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir) via vintage bottles that adequately and justly represent the region’s interesting and surprising combination of fruitiness, earthiness, and spiciness that transcends the Bay Area’s wine to also characterize its cultural and natural landscapes;

(7) to feel stimulated by and connected with the absolutely intriguing, expressive, unique, and proud people that call themselves Nationalists because America blends and embraces all the world’s colors.

Some thoughts on priorities...

I can't believe that I'm leaving so damn soon! It's hitting me from the side like a cat that's been stalking me for a while and the whole time I could see her out of the corner of my eye and still I'm defenseless and flabbergasted when she pounces at my calf. I'm starting to say my goodbyes to the people I see around.... like, real fucking goodbyes; I haven't said those in a while. I've been running outside and wearing skimpy clothes and dancing ferociously and enjoying excellent beer and (gasp!) shaving my legs because I've come to recognize these things as "American" and soon to disappear. I'm calling people I haven't talked to in years because I feel that if I don't now, then I never will.

Priorities are aligning! Amen! No, wait, it's two-men. And they're towards the bottom of the list, along with cleaning my room (which should occur naturally as a result of packing, but my space is the messiest it's ever been somehow), sitting at a computer, finally finishing the scarf I've been knitting for Kristina since Christmas, and planning my going-away party.

At the top of the agenda are: rolling around in good conversations with new and old friends; painting (yes! I'm painting again); savoring my folks' casserole dishes; visiting cities (odd and likely derived from being alone in the wilderness for the past several months); hugging my grandparents; enjoying the yellowing of the Aspens; and living every day as if it's a going-away party.

ocean to ocean

I'm flying to San Fran in a few hours to explore new horizons in my North American neighborhood. I'll dip my toes in the Pacific tomorrow and rest my eyes upon the Atlantic next week. From the Gulf Stream waters to the New York islands, this land was made for you and me.

Two weeks from now...

...I will be running through my packing list and swearing off anything that I've forgotten as something I obviously don't need; attempting to gather and hug and kiss all of my friends and family at once; digesting "mom's squash casserole"; sipping and savoring a final Fort Collins microbrew; wondering if I will be able to sleep; forgetting where I put my passport and then remembering that it's already in the hands of the U.S. government and then looking for it again five minutes later; staring up at the Northern Sky; reminding myself to breathe and be here now; and, finally, relaxing into in the wide-eyed excitement that always comes with a big "leaving", particularly one that reunites with the earth 6,000 miles south.